One of the internet's most hated and annoying bits of software, and one that endlessly needs updating due to security holes being endlessly exploited by bad guys, is finally going to die a long and slow death over the next three years. Adobe, the makers of the Flash software that first allowed the internet to sparkle and move about two decades back, will no longer be updating or distributing Flash as of 2020, as they announced here on Tuesday.

This of course means you'll still be dealing with it as a browser extension for a while now, but perhaps fewer and fewer advertisers and developers will use it for anything. Adobe itself acknowledges that the software is all but obsolete because of several other developments in recent years.

"As open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins [like Flash] pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web."

The reason, as many in the development and IT communities know, is that Flash has been a special favorite of hackers, which is part of the reason we end up being prompted to update it so often on various browsers — though apparently, as Wired explains, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is really the only browser that still fully supports and relies on Flash.

Apple famously decided not to include Flash as part of its iOS for the iPhone because Steve Jobs himself hated it, despite the company's long relationship with Adobe. And Google's Chrome has long included Flash within its software, rather than as an extension, making it "a bit more secure" according to OSX Daily, with updates happening automatically whenever you restart Chrome.

As Consumerist notes, Flash lovers (whoever they are!) still have some time to use the tool and migrate stuff to those other, open-source tools.

And then they post this joke, which of course I do not get, but perhaps some of you will.